Brother, My Brother  Part I: Promised
by Kaen Okami
Summary: What if Damien wasn't the only son of the Devil? Meet Adrian Thorn, Damien's closest companion, fiercest protector, and older half-brother.
1. Protector

~0~

_Damien. Damien. Protect him. Damien._ Every muscle in Adrian's young body burned with the ache of fatigue and his lungs screamed in protest; he had been running so hard and fast, speeding in the direction of the church. A small, idle part of his mind considered the irony of their dire situation: He and Damien both detested that place with every fiber of their being, and yet now both of them were racing for it as though their very lives depended on it, even though one of them was being taken quite against his will. The knowledge that Damien's life did depend on his catching up to Thorn, reaching them in time to save Damien, spurred him on even more. _Faster. Go faster. Move faster. Save him. Can't die. Can't die. No. He can't die. Live. He has to live. I promised him…_

The memory of his own words, spoken five years before, flowed into his head once more, his own desperation burning them into his brain. _"Don't be scared, Damien. I'm your big brother. And I'll always look out for you. I'll never let anything hurt you, ever. I'll always be there for you. I'll always protect you."_

_Protect him. He'll kill him. No. Get there first. Have to save him. He'll be killed. No. Damien. Can't die. No. Damien can't die…_

The hated building was in his sights now, towering over him; seeming to be staring down at him. The stained glass window looked like an eye to him, an enormous, contemptuously staring eye. It was like the church thought it was God Himself looking down on Adrian; resenting him and despising him. Loathing his very existence. Making him feel powerless and shunned by everything in the universe.

He knew he was sprinting as fast as he could, but it felt like he was moving in slow motion through a world where everything else moved at double speed. The church grounds…_hallowed ground_…it was lowering his influence and strength…weakening him. He felt as though what strength he had was being sucked out of him…until he noticed something that urged him on and sent his power surging back.

Thorn's car was already there, he realized as a sick feeling of dread crept through his insides. Parked and empty. Thorn had gotten there first!

_No! Damien!_ Adrian yanked the knife he had brought from where it was wedged in his belt. Thorn would not kill Damien. Thorn would die. Both Thorn and Adrian would die before he let that happen. He charged for the doors, fighting the forces that held him back, those forces that wanted nothing more than to see his beloved brother lying dead on the altar. Adrian did not intend to give them that satisfaction.

The voices burst suddenly into his head in counterpoint with the frantic alarm-pounding in his brain that reminded him with each beat of Damien's peril. The voices physically pained him with their force, their holy power; intertwining with his own desperate thoughts as he bolted for the doors of the church, tightly gripping the knife in his right hand.

_You do not belong…_

_Damien…Damien…_

_You are a stranger to us…_

_Don't let me be too late…_

_You should never have existed…_

_I have to save him…_

_You are a creature of Hell…_

_I won't let you die…_

_You were born of pure evil…_

_I was born so you would never be harmed…_

_You must die…_

_I'll kill them all first …_

_You don't know how to love…_

_I offer no mercy…_

_You only know how to destroy…_

_I will protect you…_

_You are a disease to humankind…_

_Let them all die if they harm him…_

_You shouldn't exist…_

_I exist for your sake, your protection…_

_You are the spawn of the Devil…_

_I will always be there…I promised him I would…_

_The sons of Satan have no place on this earth!_

_My promise…For Damien!_

Adrian burst into the church, and his heart froze with horror at the sight that met his eyes. Damien, the one thing on this god-forsaken earth he truly cared for, pinned down before the altar like a sacrificial lamb, his face screwed up in distress, squirming under Thorn's hand and struggling to get free. Thorn, his face contorted into something disturbingly inhuman. The vile, sacred dagger raised above Damien's small body, about to be thrust into his chest. The sounds of terror the sight of that dagger was eliciting from the five-year-old boy seared Adrian's heart and clawed at his soul with each passing second. _That is one of the only things in the world I can't take. I cannot hear you in pain. I cannot hear you scream. _

Adrian took all of this in in a second. His feet were still moving, racing down the aisle for Damien, his eyes flitting between his brother's eyes, dark as his own, and the ugly shape of the dagger positioned above him. Damien's head turned, and his eyes became even wider with surprise at the sight of his older brother hurtling down the aisle towards him, grasping a knife of his own. Thorn had not noticed him yet, and as such was preparing the dagger to plunge it into Damien. A cry burst from the depths of Adrian's throat; half as a deliberate distraction, half a sound of tormented despair at the knowledge that he wasn't going to reach Damien in time - that he would be killed before Adrian could get between him and that dagger…

"_Damien!_" Adrian screamed his brother's name at the top of his lungs.

Thorn's head snapped to the side to look incredulously at him. Adrian bitterly imagined what he was thinking: _Didn't I kill you already? Why did you come here? Why won't you die? How did you get here? Why can't you just die?_ Thorn kept glancing quickly from Damien, still wriggling on the floor; to Adrian, quickly and fiercely approaching with the knife clenched in his fist.

Abruptly, he raised the dagger above his head, and this time Adrian knew there would be no hesitation: the blade would slice unhindered through the air and pierce Damien's heart in a matter of seconds.

An image flashed into his mind of Damien. Barely hanging onto life, the dagger stuck into his chest, blood gurgling in his throat, trickling out of his mouth, the stab wound gushing more and more crimson blood, streams of the violently red liquid pouring out of Damien's body, streaming from the gash in his chest to spread over his torso and collect and form a sanguine puddle under the now-still body, the stomach-lurching scent of it piercing his nostrils. The other daggers stabbed into Damien's body in the shape of a cross to extinguish Damien's physical and spiritual being, drawing forth still more blood, sickeningly red rivers of blood, from the nearly-bled-white corpse; so much blood, so much, too much for such a small body to have held…the deep vivid red liquid blanketing Damien's unmoving form, trickling slowly into his blank eyes, the corpse lying in a scarlet pool of blood, the outskirts of it beginning to flow in narrow streams down the carpeted steps, equally bright, fatal red…

"Adrian! _Help!_"

Damien's high, terrified cry broke the vision's hold on Adrian. He was at the foot of the steps in another stride and in that same time the dagger had traveled halfway through the space between its starting point above Thorn's head and its destination in Damien's heart. Adrian dove for Thorn's dagger to block it with his own knife, his own body if need be, but he wasn't fast enough, he was going to be too late, too late…

"Adrian!" Damien's voice again. But this time something strange happened. His vision began to blur and contort, like mist cleared away by the breeze. His consciousness became hazy and seemed to slip from the grasp of his mind. And the sanguinary scene before him vanished suddenly from his awareness, to be replaced by Damien's unafraid, curious face staring down at him.

"Adrian?" he said, cocking his head to one side. "Are you awake?"

Adrian made a drowsy, just-pulled-from-sleep kind of noise as he blinked several times and slowly sat up on his bed, as Damien moved back to give him space. He felt as though something was not quite right, but he couldn't pinpoint just what. He rubbed the back of his head, as the shadow of the dull pounding alarm remained, making him uneasy. He glanced toward Damien again, to reassure himself. Yes. Damien was fine. Nothing would happen to him, as long as Adrian remained vigilant. Adrian crawled out from under the blankets and sat down in front of Damien, his right leg dangling off the edge of the bed. Damien crept closer to him. "What were you dreaming about?" he inquired.

"What?"

"You looked like you were having a bad dream. I came to wake you up for breakfast and your face looked like – " Damien illustrated his words by scrunching up his face, jerking his limbs, and pawing at the air, clearly his idea of a frightened Adrian. He relaxed his body and waited for an answer. But Adrian didn't quite have one to give him.

"Uh…" he muttered, racking his brain and trying to recover the faded fragments of the dream from his subconscious. But all he could recollect was a faint, misty dark-redness. And that could have been anything.

"I don't know. I can't remember at all," he said somewhat apologetically.

"Oh." Damien said simply, and hopped off the bed; apparently something else had attracted his attention. He started for the door and was halfway out of the room they shared when he stopped, seeing that Adrian was not following. "Come on, Adrian!" he said. "Mummy's making _pancakes_," he informed Adrian happily.

Adrian smiled and slid off the bed. "I just need to get dressed. Go on and eat, I'll come down in a few minutes." Damien nodded and started to run off when Adrian, remembering something, asked him to wait.

"I can't believe I almost forgot…Happy day-before-your-birthday, Damien," he said with a grin.

Damien laughed and returned the grin before scampering out the door and down the hallway, and then Adrian could hear him rushing down the stairs; and he pictured the excited beeline Damien would make for the stacks of lavishly buttered pancakes, drizzled with sweet maple syrup. He strode across the room to his closet, running his fingers through his mussed goldenrod hair in an attempt to tame the bedhead and thinking.

Damien had a great destiny before him, though he was hardly aware of it. In a few decades he would have risen to full prominence, humankind kneeling before him, Adrian his fiercest enforcer and resolute shadow. Their respective purposes fulfilled. Adrian laughed to himself, softly and gravely, as he dressed. _All mankind at his feet someday, and all the Antichrist needs to be satisfied now is a plateful of delicious pancakes._ How funny. He finished dressing and started for the door, and caught a whiff of breakfast cooking downstairs. The appetizing scent wafting up through the halls drew him towards the kitchen and immediately made him rethink his ideas about the pleasure the five-year-old Antichrist derived from a simple plate of pancakes. Suddenly it didn't seem so ridiculous to Adrian, and he licked his lips in spite of himself, hurrying his stride.

All traces of his gruesome dream had disappeared from his mind. It did not trouble him further. All that was on his mind now was getting downstairs and enjoying breakfast with his little brother. _The ultimate protector of the Antichrist has got to eat too, doesn't he?_

~0~


	2. Sunrise and Messenger

~0~

Adrian silently gazed out over the horizon, taking in the picturesquely beautiful dawn sky. On the mornings when he arose early, it had become a pleasurable habit of his to slip out of the house to watch the sunrise (and when he could sneak away at dusk he watched the sunset as well). Every part of it intrigued and impressed him. The light, wispy clouds bathed in varying shades of magenta and lavender. The endless expanse of the sky turned into nature's canvas, painted flawlessly; streaked with brilliant reds, golds, blues, silvers, purples, and every hue imaginable in between. The landscape before him that stretched out to the edge of the horizon to meet the sky - formerly dim and melancholy under the cloak of night - becoming pleasantly bright; and optimistic, in a sense…the darkness washed away by the rising sunlight pouring over the earth.

But what interested Adrian most was the sun itself. He leaned against the railing of the deck, gazing at the distant, brilliantly shining circle nestled in the soft, airy clouds; his thoughts wandering and focusing themselves around it. From so very far away, the sun looked merely beautiful. Only that, just something to admire from afar. Only having beauty to its name. The light and warmth something to enjoy, not marvel at. But Adrian also considered the strength behind that enjoyable light and warmth. His father – no, Adrian reminded himself, Robert Thorn was definitely not and never would be his father – Thorn has once shown him pictures of the sun up close on seeing his fascination with it, and he remembered his amazement at what he had seen, what he had really been looking at on all those mornings.

The sun, he had discovered, was actually an enormous sphere of endless fire; a great, incandescent form suspended in the despairingly dark, star-studded void of outer space. It shone intensely, with a light that was unrivaled in its glory. And it seemed to Adrian that the sun knew it; and that was why it went on, proudly shining, forever. Thorn had told him, though, that scientists suspected that even the sun had its limits and someday it would run out of its power, and one day would burn no more. That was an idea that was unfathomable to Adrian.

The sun appeared so powerful, like no force in the world could stop it from burning and shining. Even when the night fell and the moon rose to prominence in the darkened sky, the sun still shone somewhere else; Adrian just couldn't see it, was all. Adrian could not accept the idea that something so great could ever be ended, that such power could ever be restrained. If the force of the sun was so powerful, it could never be stopped, no matter who or what ever tried to. Complete and utter power, Adrian reasoned, was the ultimate force that could be attained by anything, and thus could never be defeated. Similarly, he concluded, the sun would shine forever, in radiant glory and splendor. Unhindered by anything, no matter what anyone thought, said, or did.

"Adrian! There you are!"

_Holly_. Adrian mentally cursed her for breaking the silence he had been pleasantly sinking into, and turned to face her. He smiled like he was happy that she had joined him, like she had not provoked the fury of hell by disturbing his peaceful morning. Childish naivety, that was the way to go, he had learned. And usually it was not difficult to do.

He did not hate Holly. He was really quite fond of his sweet, empathetic caretaker, but there were times, such as now, when she could be very irritating to him. But he had always acted the part of a polite, guileless child, and as such, she never suspected him of doing anything bad on purpose. The act was even better for hiding his and Damien's true natures.

Also, a fault Adrian had discovered in Holly was that she could be quite naïve and too trusting, and he had become adept at using this to his advantage. Again, like now. She wasn't angry that he had slipped away from his room very much at all. She looked more confused than angry with him.

"What are you doing out here, Adrian? You should be in bed right now!" she chastised him with both hands on her hips.

Adrian changed his expression to one of wounded innocence, and lowered his head slightly in faked shame. "I was just watching the sunrise," he murmured. _And enjoying it, too, before you came along._ "Just watching and thinking," he said, louder, looking back toward the sun.

Holly looked understanding. "I know, it's very pretty, isn't it?" Adrian nodded. "But it's still too early for you to be up. Come on back to bed; you can't be too tired to celebrate Damien's birthday today," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder and leading him back into the house. Adrian went with her willingly – he did, admittedly, get tired from waking early to look at the sunrise - but turned his head back for a moment to gaze longingly back at the sun, which was just barely showing itself, greeted by the swirls of color in the sky all around it.

~0~

"Yo, Adrian."

Adrian turned to see a seemingly human figure, clothed in ashen gray, materializing out of the heavy fuscous mist surrounding him. "Shaeido," he returned the greeting.

"Boy, have I got things to tell you," the rangy, honeydew-eyed demon drawled, putting his hands behind his head and interlocking his fingers.

He was always relaxed that way, like it was impossible for anything to go wrong in his world. He could be serious, angry, even grave, but Adrian had never seen Shaeido frustrated or stressed, and he didn't think he ever would. Sometimes Shaeido's casual coolness calmed him as well; but sometimes, like now, when he felt that sense of impending danger flow through his veins and chill his blood with apprehension, it irritated him that he could be so easy-going.

"So then tell me."

"Heh, heh…alright. I came to give you a heads-up about two new protectors coming to look after Damien soon. Straight from hell, just like yours truly."

"New protectors?" Adrian didn't know why, but he had always felt somewhat territorial about his place as Damien's protector. It did not feel right to him to have others assume his role. "Why? I'm doing fine on my own," he protested.

Shaeido laughed softly. "Yeah, but you don't know what's coming."

"If you tell me, then I'll know."

"Hmph. The new protectors will let you know."

_New protectors._ Adrian did not like the sound of that at all. He almost felt silly about asking Shaeido the question growing in his mind, but he asked anyway.

"Am I…being replaced?"

To his chagrin, Shaeido laughed again. His laughter sounded like the high yip of a hound. But his words soothed Adrian's worry. "No, are you kidding me? Of course you're not being replaced!" He said the last two words like they were the most ridiculous things that could have come out of Adrian's mouth.

"You were born to be Damien's strongest line of defense. Everything about you was all planned out so you would be his most efficient protector. You literally can't be replaced."

Shaeido's laughter ceased for a moment, and his face became serious. "You want to know why you're getting reinforcements? Because, whatever you might think otherwise, you need them."

Adrian cut Shaeido off. "I've protected Damien well before, haven't I? Am I not doing a good enough job? What's wrong?"

"Nothing you're doing is wrong," Shaeido assured him. "But there was nobody coming for you before. There is now. The forces of God are moving, and they're coming fast."

Adrian's blood froze cold. _God._ He inherently hated and feared that name, or more accurately, the force and being it represented. It both unnerved him and lit a wildfire in his soul. It shook him to his core and made him feel like he could take on anything daring to try and harm Damien. He looked at Shaeido, and saw the same feelings reflected in his grim expression. "They're…coming after Damien?"

"Yeah. And you can't repel them by yourself. Like I said, you were born to be Damien's strongest protector, but you aren't there yet. The new one will be training you as well as watching out for Damien."

"These new protectors. Tell me about them."

"Well, I'll just run through what's going to happen today, and you'll get to know them when you meet them."

"Alright then."

"You know your nanny? Uh…Harriet?"

"Holly."

"Yeah, her. She's the one who's being replaced. See, one of the new protectors will assume the role of your and Damien's new nanny."

"What'll happen to Holly?" Adrian asked, confused.

"Yeah…" Shaeido said, dragging out the word. "She's going to have to die," he said, like a doctor saying he'll have to give you an unexpected shot.

"What?" Adrian had known, always, that the path to Damien's and his ascension to power would be littered with the corpses of those sacrificed in the name of their purposes. But the sudden news that Holly would have to be killed shocked him.

"Does she…I mean…Does Holly have to die?" The words spilled out of his mouth before he had even begun to think about them, and he instantly felt foolish about them. There was no changing the way things had to be. He understood and accepted that.

Shaeido fixed him with a stern gaze. "You know it must happen this way."

Adrian shook himself. Of course he knew. "Yes. I was just a little surprised, is all. How is she going to die?"

"The other protector will take care of that. Look carefully and maybe you'll see him at work. But trust me, Adrian…" he began; rearing his head back, shaking out his long, unruly ebony-colored hair, and grinning widely, baring short, sharp, glistening triangular teeth. His forked serpentine tongue, abnormally long and colored like a rose veiled in mist, snaked between his reptilian fangs and hung lazily out of his mouth; and his eyes glowed eerily bright and streaks of lava-bright incarnadine color, which looked like molten rock but still possessed the likeness of flesh, slashed through his hair and skin. A human would faint with shock and horror if they saw Shaeido like he was now, Adrian thought. _Part of his true demon form. He must really be excited. _

"You'll really get a show today," he promised. "Better than any entertainment Thorn could pay for."

Adrian smiled. Shaeido was adept at arranging bizarre deaths. He was eager to see what his mentor had come up with for Holly. And maybe getting a couple new protectors to join him would not be so bad. He had never had anyone to teach him besides Shaeido. He was curious now, to meet them and see what they were like.

"Heh…yeah," Shaeido said to himself, his face reverting to its normal human form. He looked at Adrian. "You understand now? You're okay with this? No problem?"

Adrian nodded. "Uh-huh."

"Hey, and you enjoy yourself at that party, you hear me? I've got everything covered. You can just hang around and watch. Oh, and when she dies, it'll only hurt her a little, so don't worry."

"All right, Shaeido."

"Good boy. Now get up and wish your brother a happy birthday for me, will ya?"

The mist hanging in the air whirled around Adrian, and Shaeido's form was swept into it. And all of a sudden Adrian found himself lying again in his bed, on top of the covers since he had not felt like getting under them. He did not know whether to smile or frown on remembering Shaeido's visit, and his messages. He opened his eyes and sat up to see Holly helping Damien get dressed. When they saw that he was awake, they cheerfully wished him a good morning. Damien waved excitedly at him, as if they were a hundred yards apart and not just across the room from each other.

"Happy birthday, Damien!" Adrian said, equally cheerful.

"Thanks, Adrian!"

Adrian looked at Holly's smiling face and smiled back at her. The smile became less friendly and more sardonic when she turned away from him and back to Damien. She did not know she was being replaced. Only Adrian knew. _Sorry, Holly. You've got to go._

~0~


	3. Hypnosis

Shaeido had explicitly told him to enjoy himself at Damien's party, and he was admittedly happy to do so. Thorn had organized an excellent party for Damien, and Adrian was impressed in spite of himself. The only thing he could not understand in Thorn's choice of entertainment was the clown he had hired. What in my father's name was he thinking? Adrian thought to himself, catching himself staring at the freakish-looking clown distributing balloon animals, while he practiced backflips on the inflatable bouncer. That is decidedly not funny, that is creepy. The guy looks like a child molester, for crying out loud! But his misgivings about Thorn's decisions on who to hire to entertain a yard full of kids were forgotten soon enough. He was happy enough seeing Damien grinning and laughing and having fun on his birthday.

He wondered, as Damien grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him off the bouncer toward the slide, insisting Adrian join him in doing everything at the party, if this was what a parent felt, the emotions he felt for his brother. He sometimes wondered what Thorn and Katharine felt about Damien. Katharine's emotions, he guessed, were likely the closest to what a real parent would feel for her blood related sons; as she knew nothing about their adoptions or what had happened to her real children.

He could not decipher Thorn's feelings toward them, with Thorn's knowing that they were adopted and his real children were dead. This lack of knowledge worried Adrian. He had made it a point to spend patient hours figuring out exactly what each person that affected his life knew about them and thought about them. He knew that knowledge was a major form of power, and holding this power over those that would oppose him and Damien was of great importance to him.

One day, Adrian had known for a while, his "parents" would discover the truth about their adopted children, at which point they would become his enemies and he would have to fight them, for Damien's life and his own. He had given careful thought over the years as to how he would fight this battle when it came, but his plans were constantly shifting, as new knowledge, ideas, and variables were thrown into the mix of swirling thought.

The truth was Adrian was not at all sure he was prepared.

This thought only reinforced his feeling that perhaps he needed the knowledge a new protector would have to pass on to him. As he pondered this, a bright flash he noticed out of the corner of his eye distracted him, and he turned to look and find out what had caused it. A photographer, of course. The flash had come from a camera, from the photographer taking a picture of a smiling Holly. Adrian briefly wondered why. Holly was pretty enough, but likely the photographer wanted pictures for a newspaper. Why would he need to take pictures of Holly? And why would a newspaper cover a politician's five-year-old child's birthday party, anyway? Wasn't there anything better to cover? Adrian dismissed these thoughts from his mind, and was about to follow Damien to the carousel, when something else caught his eye.

It was a dog; a burly-looking Rottweiler, hidden by the shade of a large tree, a distance behind Holly. He would have wondered how a dog had gotten onto the property without Thorn's consent if he hadn't felt a strange presence about this dog, a sort of familiarity. A feeling of friendliness and comradeship directed at him. It was similar to the feeling of kinship he and Shaeido shared.

He stared at the dog and it stared back, smiling its dog-smile with the pink tongue lolling out of its mouth; the kind that seemed to be saying, "Hello." The way the dog looked at him made him feel like it knew him. Like they were friends that had met years ago and not seen one another until now.

"Adrian?" said a puzzled voice behind him. "Adrian? Don't you want to come?" Damien had turned back to see why he was not coming to ride the carousel with him.

Adrian did want to, but he also wanted to stay and find out if his perceptions were true, if this dog was one of the new protectors Shaeido had said were coming. "You go ahead; I'll be there in a minute. I'll come as soon as I can."

Damien deemed this acceptable and ran off. Adrian turned back to study the dog, and realized that he wasn't the only one who had caught sight of it. Holly was looking at it too, he saw. But it didn't look to Adrian as though she felt the same connection to the dog as him. It had caught and held her gaze, as it had done to him, but it was different. They stared at each other, amber canine eyes into coffee brown human eyes, but the effects were not the same. Holly did not sense what he had sensed in the dog's eyes, which burned with unusual intelligence. She did not feel what he felt.

In fact, it didn't look like she felt much of anything at all. A sort of dullness had come over Holly's eyes and body, and she looked like her spirit had been washed away, had faded out of her. Her movements looked numb and unconscious of her will as Adrian, puzzled as to her sudden change in behavior, watched her walk away as if in a daze towards the house, or more accurately, to the tool shed. It looked to Adrian almost like she was in a trance of some kind. That's it, he realized. She's hypnotized. Or something like that. The dog hypnotized her – no normal dog could do that! It's got to be one of the new protectors.

He whipped back around to face the dog again, fearing for the fleeting moment it took for Adrian to turn back around that it would not be there. He worried that it had disappeared, its purpose completed. But he found it had remained there, and that it had not moved from its position at all. He gazed at the dog again, now knowing for sure what it was. It may have been his imagination, but its canine smile seemed to widen a little. Then it closed its mouth and assumed a more formal expression.

Adrian wordlessly raised his right hand to it in a half-wave. The dog in turn bowed its large head, never breaking eye contact with Adrian. Then it turned and loped away into the trees. Adrian, after watching the dog retreat into the shadows until it vanished from his sight, turned and walked off, remembering what Shaeido had said about leaving everything to the protectors, to rejoin Damien. He had to admit, that carousel looked fun to him, and he was eager to try it out.

All I have to do now, he thought, is sit back and wait to see how Shaeido plans to finish off Holly.

~0~


	4. A Short Drop, A Sudden Stop

"So, Damien," Thorn said, puffing a little as he jogged alongside the carousel to talk to Damien and Adrian, and looking quite comical in doing so. "How are you enjoying your birthday?"

"Great!" Damien chirped with a grin.

"Glad to hear it," Thorn said, ignoring the chuckles coming from the people around him, Adrian included. "Are you both having fun?"

"Uh-huh!"

"Yes," Adrian said, with a half-fake smile. "But sometime," he added, voicing a conclusion he'd come to a few minutes ago. "I want to learn to ride a real horse!"

Adrian had imagined himself astride a strong and proud midnight black stallion with a starlight-silver mane, galloping faster than anything across varying terrain: across a solitary plain of soft, downy grass falling before the breeze with crystal clear waterfalls and rivers around, deep in a pine forest at sunset, mountain ranges with the wind tearing through the air around him, something with a lot of glorious fire that he hadn't come up with yet…

Thorn's voice broke into his thoughts. "All right, Adrian, I'll see about getting you riding lessons."

Adrian smiled, for real. He'd enjoy that more than riding an artificial horse around and around in aimless circles. Damien seemed to agree. "What about me? Can I do it too?" he asked excitedly, wanting to do the same fun-sounding thing as Adrian.

"I don't see why not."

"Yay!"

Adrian laughed quietly at his brother's exuberance. Then his attention was directed elsewhere by a disembodied voice.

"Damieeeeen…Damieeeeen…." Damien's head jerked up at the sound of his name. Someone was calling him, and it sounded strange to Adrian. He and Thorn, and Katharine, who was nearby, looked over too.

"Damien! Look at me! I'm over here!" Katharine lifted Damien off the carousel horse and held him in her arms. Damien pointed towards the house. "Look, there's Nanny!"

It was Holly.

Adrian climbed off the carousel and went to stand beside them. He stared intently at Holly's form, trying to see what she was doing. She was standing on the very edge of the balcony –the same one, in fact, that Adrian had been watching the sun rise from just a few hours before – with a strangely frozen, smiling expression. He studied her more carefully, trying to figure out what was happening and what was going to happen. Adrian wanted to see if he could figure out what Shaeido's plan for Holly's death was before it was fully executed. He thought he had it.

Holly was in a precarious position on the edge of the balcony, in danger of easily falling. Adrian thought she might fall from that height and die that way; an image of her broken corpse, her limbs splayed out and her body twisted and bent at awkward, abnormal angles, the odd smile frozen on her lips, flashed into his mind. He frowned. _Rather uncreative, Shaeido. I expected something a bit more inventive coming from you_. Then he noticed a small detail about Holly he had missed before.

Adrian's eyes traced the length of rope tied to the roof above Holly's head, stretching down to Holly and snaking around her neck, and realized what Shaeido's real scheme was exactly one second before Holly jumped off of the balcony.

The first pang of shock pulsed in Adrian's heart at the same time Holly's neck snapped, and tore through his veins as her body swung back and smashed into the window. It numbed him, stunned him. _Whoa_, he mouthed, and made a mental note never to underestimate Shaeido's talent of causing an imaginative death again. _You promised over-the-top entertainment, Shaeido, and you definitely came through._ He glanced at Damien to see how he was taking it.

Katharine, speechless with horror, had mouthed, _My God_; and turned Damien's head away to shield him from the sight. She looked down to Adrian, and he made like he was shocked and terrified – turning himself into what he thought a regular child would look like if he had just witnessed his nanny leap from a balcony and hang herself. Thorn put his arms around the three of them to comfort his family. Katharine welcomed the embrace, but Adrian slipped out of it to Katharine's other side, to see how Damien was.

He seemed to Adrian rather dispassionate about his nanny hanging dead from the balcony.

But he was only a child, and he probably didn't really know what had just happened. He looked at Adrian, only his eyes moving, his head resting on Katharine's shoulder. Adrian put a comforting hand on his brother's back, just in case he was frightened at all. Damien smiled, happy to have Adrian with him, and Adrian returned the smile, glad that Damien seemed to be okay. Then Damien's eyes flicked away suddenly, and then he looked back at Adrian and said, in a muffled voice since his head was still on Katharine's shoulder, "Look." Adrian looked, and saw the dog.

It was smiling in a self-satisfied way, pleased with itself at having done its job well. _Hey, boss,_ it seemed to be saying. _Are you pleased with me, too?_ And Adrian was. The dog had carried out its task thoroughly and efficiently, succeeding also in impressing him enough for Adrian to accept it as having the makings of an excellent protector for Damien. He glanced at Damien, who did not seem to feel threatened by the presence of a large fanged animal so close to him. He slowly lifted his little hand and wiggled his fingers in a friendly wave at the dog. _See you later_. Adrian turned back to the dog and bowed his head slightly, keeping his eyes locked onto the dog's face_. A job well done. You're dismissed._ The dog turned and bounded away into the bushes. Adrian stepped away from his grieving parents to look unrepentantly at Holly's body, swinging slightly due to the momentum. _I wonder what your replacement will be like,_ he wondered idly.

~0~


	5. Strengths

Adrian sat on the edge of his bed and watched Damien as he busied himself with getting his paints, brush, and paper set up on the floor. It had only been a day since Holly's death, and Thorn and Katharine had been concerned about how witnessing her sudden suicide would affect Adrian and Damien, but they need not have worried.

Damien seemed to have forgotten what had happened already. He apparently didn't think it was that big of a deal. Adrian had been informed of Holly's fate beforehand, and as such was nonchalant about the whole affair. Katharine had thought his cavalier attitude strange at first, but had evidently jumped to the conclusion that it was the eternally calm Adrian's way of "dealing with his own emotions," as he had overheard her telling Thorn last night as he was walking past their door, on his way to the balcony to view the sunset and hoping that the mess of shattered glass from the broken window had been cleared away. Adrian did not think much about Holly's death, but thought constantly about what would come of it.

The second new protector was supposed to arrive soon, and Adrian wanted to make a good impression on him or her. He didn't want this protector to think of him as an immature, incompetent child who was unfit for his monumental task of watching over Damien. He had to show he was just the opposite. He was inexperienced and young, true, but that didn't necessarily mean he wasn't a capable protector. But how was he to prove himself?

He rolled over onto his back and stared at the ceiling, as though it might hold the answer to this question. Finding no such revelation, Adrian pulled himself back up to a sitting position and focused his gaze on the flames dancing in the fireplace behind Damien, who was busily painting. _Why is there a fire burning in a room with a two unsupervised kids in it?_ he wondered. Then his attentions were directed back to Damien.

"I'm painting a tiger!" Damien announced to him. He lifted his hands like paws, curled his fingers into claws, and let out an aggressive but very non-threatening roar. "Graaaaawr!"

Adrian smiled and did the same to humor Damien. "Raawr."

"Wow." Damien was impressed. "You do it _really_ good! You sound _just_ like a tiger!"

"I do?" Adrian was unaware that he was capable of making realistic sound effects. _Put that on my résumé for proving my worth._

"Yeah!"

Just then the doorknob clicked, and Adrian's eyes snapped to the door immediately. Damien either didn't notice or didn't care. It opened, and a woman that Adrian estimated was in her early forties stepped in. Adrian went into a watchful, catlike stance as he observed her. He sensed the same aura about her that he sensed around Shaeido and the dog that had sent Holly to her death. A new protector?

She noticed Damien first, as he was the more conspicuous of the brothers. He looked up and noticed the newcomer, and he regarded her with curiosity, not shyness as usual. They looked at one another for a second, Adrian a silent, unseen observer, and then the woman said cryptically, "Have no fear, little one. I am here to protect thee." Damien smiled, finding the statement friendly. To Adrian, it was almost ominous.

Adrian's thoughts were confirmed. This woman was the new protector.

"I'm Mrs. Baylock," the woman said, in a normal voice. "I'm going to be your new nanny."

"I'm Damien," Damien said brightly, gesturing to himself with the paintbrush. "I'm five. And that's my big brother Adrian. He's eight." He turned and pointed across the room to Adrian, motionless on his bed in the shadowy corner, the light of the flickering fire illuminating his impassive face and alert, attentive eyes. Mrs. Baylock turned more slowly to face Adrian and appraised him, smiling. She looked back down at Damien, who had resumed painting his tiger, which to Adrian resembled an orange and black striped potato with blocky legs, a straight and rigid tail, and a head that looked like an upside down tree stump with pointed ears. He wasn't paying attention to either Mrs. Baylock or Adrian, absorbed in his artwork. Mrs. Baylock looked up at Adrian, and turned to go into her new room, which was adjoined with theirs. She motioned with her hand for Adrian to follow, which he silently did.

Once they were in her room, it didn't change much at first. She continued to look him over; and Adrian stood and solemnly looked back, doing the same. She honestly did not look very strong or very impressive to him. But she was likely acting to avoid suspicion, just as he was; and he realized he probably did not look very strong or impressive at first glance himself.

His eyes shot down to look at himself: dressed in his favorite outfit of a brilliant flame-red collared shirt and coal-black jeans, his short, thick gold hair combed neatly back, and his simple yet nice-looking pendant of tiger's eye in its place around his neck. He had examined his eyes in mirrors occasionally, and knew they burned with intelligence and inner power. He exercised and practiced fighting techniques that Shaeido had taught him frequently, thinking with satisfaction of his well-worn punching bags, and he liked the way his wiry limbs looked. He was certainly stronger than most other children his age. _Then again_, he thought wryly, _most other children my age aren't the offspring of Satan_. But the point remained: he was still just a child, a state that was irritatingly unfit for fighting Damien's enemies to the death.

"You don't need to look so tense. You're not in trouble," Mrs. Baylock said. She smiled knowingly. "Trying to look intimidating?"

Adrian hesitated before admitting, "Yes. Actually, it comes sort of naturally. Thorn is always saying 'There's no need to look so battle-ready all the time, Adrian'." He half-smiled, appreciating the irony.

"If he only knew," Mrs. Baylock agreed. "So. You are Damien's current protector?"

"Yes, I am. And you are one of the new protectors?"

"Yes," she said. "The second will join us soon. I believe you've met him already?" She spoke lightly, having the same feelings about Holly's death as Adrian.

"He was the Rottweiler I saw at Damien's party, right?"

"Correct."

"Is he a hellhound?"

"I suppose you could call him that. But enough about him. It's you I'm interested in."

"Where to start then? Do you want to know about my position? My knowledge? Or my abilities?"

Mrs. Baylock thought for a moment. "Let's begin with what you know. You are fully aware of your heritage?"

"I know that my biological father is Satan, and I inherited much of his powers. I'm far stronger, faster, and more agile and intelligent than I should be for my age, for instance. But, I know nothing of my mother except that she died giving birth to me." Adrian's voice rose at the end of his sentence in an inquiry, and he raised his eyebrows questioningly. He had always wondered and wondered who had been his mother, and he hoped wildly that he might get some clues as to his mother's identity from Mrs. Baylock, since Shaeido had never told him anything regarding her.

But she shook her head, saying, "I'm sorry, Adrian. I wasn't told about your mother. Only Damien's."

"In that case, who is Damien's mother?" He was in the dark on her identity as well.

"Her name was Maria Scianna." Mrs. Baylock seemed hesitant to tell him the rest. Adrian did not want to wait patiently.

"And…who was she? What kind of a person was she?"

The time it took for Mrs. Baylock to answer was agonizingly long, and he was greatly disappointed by the answer: "My apologies, Adrian. But I'm not sure you're ready to know all the details about your and your brother's births just yet."

Adrian opened his mouth to object almost before she was done speaking, but closed it again and swallowed hard. "I understand."

"Now, let me hear about your knowledge of the purpose that comes with your origins," Mrs. Baylock said, deliberately changing the subject.

"It was determined that the Antichrist should have the most powerful protector as possible, and I was specially born to be that protector. My purpose in existence is defending him from those who want to kill him before he can realize his own destiny. When he is old enough to begin doing that, I am going to assist him, and act as his second-in-command."

"Excellent," Mrs. Baylock said, with the air of a teacher applauding a student. Suddenly, she laughed and remarked, "You realize that when you both come of age and Damien is fully aware of his own purposes, you'll be taking orders from your little brother?" She inclined her head to the door, beyond which Damien was occupying himself.

Adrian laughed a little, finding it difficult to picture himself one day taking orders from his five-year-old brother. "So is that all you wanted to know, regarding my understanding of what I'm meant for?"

"One more thing. You are completely aware of what your purpose entails? The things you will have to do?"

Adrian knew what she meant. "I accepted the sacrifices that would have to be made long ago," he said with finality. "I see bloodshed and death as necessary. It's something that must happen for our purposes to be fulfilled. It doesn't disturb me."

"And you realize the danger that you are in? That you will have to fight and endure a great amount of pain?"

"I know. I've been trained to fight for a long time now and pain…" Adrian thought for a moment, looking hard for the right words to describe his feeling. "Pain just doesn't seem to bother me most of the time. I feel it like any other person, but it affects me differently, I think."

Mrs. Baylock looked slightly puzzled by his explanation, but seemed to understand to some extent. "I see. You have been trained for your purpose? By who?"

"Do you know a demon named Shaeido?"

Mrs. Baylock's eyes narrowed slightly, and she frowned. _She knows him_, Adrian thought, though he guessed from her expression that their relationship was far from friendly.

"Shaeido? Untamable dark black hair, vibrant green eyes, fair skin? Wild and roguish, reckless, devil-may-care personality? Does that sound like him?"

Adrian nodded. "That sounds exactly like him. He's my mentor."

"I'm genuinely surprised you're so well-mannered and conscientious, with someone like him teaching you. He's known well, first for his recklessness and second for his…prowess in certain areas."

"Do you know him personally?" Adrian wanted to know.

"I don't want to offend you by saying 'unfortunately,' but I have to: Unfortunately, yes, I have met him and have had to work with him personally."

Adrian felt the need to defend his friend. "He's an excellent mentor. He's taught me very well."

"I'm sure he has. If he weren't one of the most powerful, he wouldn't be mentoring you. I have to say I don't like him very much, but one has to respect his skills if nothing else. But where were we? Ah…So, what kind of fighting has he taught you?"

"He mainly taught me all kinds of martial arts: Karate, kung fu, jiu-jitsu, tae kwon do, judo, and some others. He also taught me to use anything I can for defense, and to be resourceful that way."

"Have you ever had to use what he taught you?"

"Well…No, not yet," Adrian admitted. "But he warned me I would need to soon. They…They're coming for Damien soon, right? And I need to be ready." Or he could die.

Mrs. Baylock's voice and expression were equally grim. "Yes. That's why I'm here; to make sure that you both are safe." She looked a little sad, but she looked him firmly in the eyes when she said 'both.' _She's trying to say I matter as much as Damien?_ Adrian thought, contemplating raising one eyebrow and deciding against it. _I suppose I do, but either way Damien is the priority, whether she thinks so or not. And I don't need to be looked after. I can fight for myself_, he thought, and said so.

"I'll fight to the death to protect Damien if I have to. Don't underestimate me. I can take anything." Adrian looked away and tried to make himself sound brave. When he looked back, Mrs. Baylock was still looking at him intensely.

"You're not afraid?" It sounded like half a question, and half trying to catch him out or challenge him.

The words struck a nerve in Adrian, though he would never show it. Ever since he had fully realized what he was expected to do, he had expended a lot of effort beating the tough core of fear at what he was facing down inside of him so that it barely existed. The fact he tried the hardest to deny was that it still did exist. To his mind, in a truly powerful being, there was no room for any fear.

He clenched his fists and teeth, and he felt his eyes narrow. "Fear is not a part of me," he declared, trying to make himself believe it. "Fear is a human emotion. _Fear_ is for the weak. I am not weak!"

Mrs. Baylock looked at Adrian for a few moments before quietly responding. "Fear is universal. Fear is felt by all beings. There is no escaping it. If you feel fear in yourself, you are not weak."

"Then why does the slightest edge of apprehension make me hate myself for feeling it? Why does it make me feel less than what I could be? If fear does not make you weak, why do I feel weak because of it?"

"Because fear is not weakness. It's giving in to your fears and letting them overcome you; that is the weakness."

Adrian was taken aback. Was that what was going on? How was that happening to him? He could not be weak. And he did not give in to anything!

"That…I'm not weak like that!" he protested. _That didn't sound good_. "I'm not weak at all! I have to be the most powerful, if I'm to perform my duty properly! How could I be weak?"

Mrs. Baylock waited to let him breathe for a moment before answering. "You are not weak in terms of physical strength. Pure power runs in your blood, and merely needs to be cultivated, enhanced, and refined to bring out your full potential. But you are still young, and a young mind, even one as brilliantly precocious as yours, Adrian, can be easily corroded. If something can make a profound effect on you, you could begin to doubt yourself, or believe something you are not meant to believe."

Was she trying to say Adrian would stray from the path he had been chosen for? _Never_. "I won't do that. Nothing will make me abandon my fate."

Mrs. Baylock locked her gaze onto him. "Even the strongest of warriors have a weak point. You must learn to overcome yours before it becomes your downfall."

Adrian remained silent. He had no protestations or any other words. What could he say to this?

"Go back with your brother. It's getting late, and I can't keep you here all night. There will be work to do, but not just yet. Besides, your dreams are quite important to you, aren't they?" She said this with a knowing smile.

Adrian nodded, not returning the smile. "Yes. My dreams are either prophetic, or Shaeido wants to talk with me, but can't see me in person." Adrian paused before asking the next question. "Shaeido can shape-shift, and appear in a person's dreams, and he has several other abilities as well. I don't know the extent of a demon's power, since Shaeido was the only one I knew until now. Do you have the same abilities?"

"Well, I can shape-shift. You don't think this is my actual form, do you?" She moved her hand downward from her head as she said this. "But I can't affect dreams the way he can. That is a talent possessed by few of us, and Shaeido happens to be one who possesses this talent."

"Okay. I'll go now?" When she nodded in farewell, Adrian turned and left the room. He took his former position on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

Fear. She had said his weakness was fear. No –his fear was getting the better of him, and that was what was making him weak. The true impact of that hit Adrian as he lay there, thinking about what Mrs. Baylock had told him. The hidden shadows of fear within him, silently gnawing at him and preying on his emotions, were a virtually unavoidable weakness. He was unwilling to admit even to himself that the realization unnerved him.

_But_, he contradicted himself, _how can that be? There is nothing I truly fear. I am not afraid of any creature. I am not afraid of any human. I am not afraid to fight. I am not afraid to die. _

Adrian's mind then turned to his inherent enemy.

_I have never faced anyone of God before. I don't know exactly what I should do to fight such an opponent, that seems so strong and prevalent. I have no idea what I'm up against, really. Could that be it? Fear of the unknown…It seems so natural, but it's also glaringly obvious that it would make one weak…_

Adrian rolled over on the bed, thinking he had pinpointed the source of his apparent weak point, and thinking of ways to rectify it immediately. But his thoughts stopped short when he caught sight of something else.

His little brother, humming something to himself as he put the finishing touches on his tiger painting. On completing it, he held it up and admired his work, and smiled with satisfaction. To his eyes the amateurish painting was a work of art, worthy of a place on the refrigerator, even. He got to his feet and placed the painting on his nightstand. He turned and saw Adrian watching him.

"Do you think Mummy and Daddy will like it?" he asked brightly.

"I think they'll love it, Damien," Adrian answered quietly. He realized now, what the immense fear was that made him weak. But it also made him strong. He didn't want to get rid of it, but he couldn't have it impairing him. What was he to do?

His greatest fear was losing Damien. The nagging fear that he would fail the mission he had been born to complete, and some mistake on his part would cause Damien's death.

This fear had, he saw now, grown inside him when he learned in full what exactly he was to protect Damien from, and had taken root there. It made him rethink his every move, and threatened to become consuming of him. But protecting Damien was his only duty in life. The very real danger that he could fail, that Damien could be killed, was a large part of his motivation. The fear that his brother could die if he failed greatly fueled his innate drive not to fail, to keep that fear from coming true by giving everything of himself to defend him.

Adrian rolled off the bed suddenly. With this new protector for Damien and apparently trainer for him, and this new revelation of weakness in himself and the need to combat it, he needed sometime to be alone to think things over.

Without a word, he crossed the room to the door. He turned his head to see Damien watching him, his dark eyes at first questioning, but then remembering where his older brother often went in the mornings and nights. He nodded assent, and turned his attentions to his toy chest in the corner, looking for something else to do before bed now that his painting was done.

Adrian pushed open the door and strode out to watch the sun set.

~0~


	6. Father Brennan

"So, don't you like me better than Baylock?" Shaeido said. It wasn't a question.

Adrian internally smirked. He did prefer Shaeido over Mrs. Baylock, thought he liked both of them, but he decided to tease Shaeido a little.

"Well," he began, drawing out the word. "I don't know. You're more familiar, but she does seem more experienced than you are, and just a little bit smarter, too."

Shaeido scowled. "Don't get mouthy with me, kid."

"I'm just expressing my opinion," Adrian said, letting the impish smirk show on his face. "And I can see her in person more, too."

That was a true benefit of having more protectors, Adrian thought: being able to actually see them and interact with them. As close as he and Shaeido were, he barely ever saw him in the real world. Usually, they only saw each other and spoke when Shaeido contacted Adrian in his dreams and that wasn't all that often, either. He didn't like to admit it, but it made him a little upset.

Shaeido's expression softened, knowing Adrian didn't like the fact that they didn't see one another that much. "Hey, I wish I could see more of you too, kid. I kind of like you, you know. But I've got things to do, places to be, people to stalk."

"What do you mean?" Adrian asked. He knew Shaeido well, but what he did exactly, outside of mentoring him, was a mystery to Adrian.

"Well, since you asked," Shaeido began, with a grim smile. "See, there's this priest. He's called Father Brennan. And he's a traitor to our kind."

"Traitor?" Adrian was confused. Priests were humans, and didn't "their kind" mean satanic creatures like Shaeido and Mrs. Baylock, both demons, and he and Damien, the children of the Devil?

"Ah," Shaeido said, picking up on Adrian's confusion. "Let me explain. Brennan used to be a follower of Satan, but he feared divine punishment for his sins when he died, and so left our ways and became a priest."

"I see. So why is he so special that you're hunting him down?"

"You catch on quick, kid," Shaeido remarked. "He might not be so bad if he only converted and performed normal priestly duties, but he's doing things that have made him a threat, and we can't let it go unpunished."

"What has he been doing?" Adrian asked, and then thought the words over for another moment. "Wait. He's become a threat? Do you mean…he's trying to go after Damien and me?"

"You got it. Clever boy. What Brennan's doing is trying to warn Thorn of who his children truly are. He's tried to tell him that you both must be dealt with or more people besides Hallie -"

"Holly," Adrian automatically corrected, internally bristling at what this man was doing to them, and the fact that he had been referred to as Thorn's child.

"Yeah, her…Anyway, what he tried to say was that the two of you would cause more deaths than hers. He tried to tell Thorn where you really came from – "

"Wait. You keep saying, 'tried to.' Did he not get the words out completely?"

"No. And Thorn, like any reasonable person, didn't believe what he had been able to say, and had Brennan escorted out of his building. It's kind of like in a horror movie," he added. "Skeptics never believe the truth until too late, and by then, it's well, too late." Shaeido shrugged his shoulders in an 'Oh, well, too bad' gesture and smiled. "It's a safe bet Thorn won't realize the exact kind of trouble he's in until he's in too deep and drowning, and then…" Shaeido made a cutting motion across his throat with his index finger to indicate death.

Adrian said, "Is there any way I could know just what he said? I'd like to know exactly what he told Thorn."

"And what would you do with that?" Shaeido asked. Adrian knew he expected a certain right answer before he told Adrian anything, but was confident that his was the right answer.

"I want to know how much Thorn knows, and how much knowledge he might be able to gain from it. I also want to know what he thinks about what Brennan is trying to tell him, if any effect has been made."

"In short, you plan to use Brennan's meeting with Thorn to your advantage."

"Right. So do I pass?"

Shaeido gave a short laugh, and then nodded. "All right, kid, have a look."

His bright honeydew eyes locked onto Adrian's dark black ones, and appeared to flash once.

Adrian saw a spark of white, and then he saw what could only be Thorn's office. He was not 'there,' rather, he was seeing the events like a movie that took up all of his vision. Adrian took in the scene before him. Thorn sat at his desk, with two men standing before it. They had clearly been in the middle of conversation when Thorn's intercom buzzed. "Yes?" Thorn answered it.

"There's a Father Brennan here to see you," a businesslike female voice said.

"Who?" asked Thorn.

"A priest named Father Brennan from Rome. He says it's a matter of urgent personal business."

_Rome, _thought Adrian. _Isn't that where Damien and I were both born?_

"Never heard of him," Thorn said, a light note of puzzlement in his voice.

"He says he just needs a minute. Something about a hospital."

_Our births, _Adrian realized. _That's what Brennan tried to tell him. _He still detested the man, but part of him was eager to hear whatever Brennan could get out, to see if he could unravel by himself the secret of who had brought him into the world.

"Donation time?" one of the men in front of Thorn suggested, and they both smiled as though the idea were funny.

Thorn, however, did not, and said, "All right, send him in."

"Didn't know you were such a soft touch," the same man said, and he turned and left the room. The second man paused in his departure.

"On that trip to Saudi Arabia," he said, "why isn't it the right time?"

_Saudi Arabia? _Adrian thought, confused at first, then he remembered Thorn talking about taking a business trip there, and that it could be quite profitable for Thorn Industries. _Did he decide not to go?_

"Oh, it's personal, Tom, I just…don't feel like leaving home right now."

_Ah. So he skips a chance to strike it rich in Saudi Arabia in favor of time at home? _Adrian thought, wondering about the reason behind Thorn's decision. _Somehow I don't think that's all._

Both men had left the room, making way for Thorn's new guest. Adrian eyed the large silver crucifix hanging on a chain from his neck, standing out against his dark suit, and identified him as Father Brennan.

"Yes, Father?" Thorn asked conversationally.

"We haven't much time," Brennan said, in a quiet, cryptic voice. "You must listen to what I have to say.

_Clearly, he's not the kind for pleasantries, _Adrian thought.

"All right, what is it?" asked Thorn, keeping the same light, friendly tone, but Adrian could sense slight unease behind it.

"You must accept Christ as your savior. You must accept him now."

Thorn definitely looked uneasy now, and confused. "Forgive me, Father, but didn't I understand that you have a matter of some urgent personal business?"

But Brennan offered no direct explanation, yet. "You must take Communion," he went on. "Drink the blood of Christ, and eat His flesh."

_What? _Adrian thought, wrinkling his nose. _Now I'm even gladder I'm not Catholic, Christian, or anything of that nature. It sounds revolting._

"For only if He is within you can you defeat the sons of the Devil!" Brennan declared.

"I see," Thorn muttered, and Adrian knew he had no idea what Brennan was going on about.

"They've killed once! They'll kill again!" Brennan said, his voice rising, and becoming more urgent. "They'll kill until everything that's yours is theirs!"

_Technically, it was Shaeido and that dog that killed Holly…not me or Damien. _Adrian mentally contradicted. _But then again, I may have to do some killing later on…Brennan has a point._

"Father, would you please – " Thorn started to say something, but Brennan cut him off.

"Only through Christ can you fight them!" he said, stepping closer to Thorn's desk. Then his voice lowered again, entreating Thorn to listen to him. "Accept the Lord Jesus. Drink his blood."

Thorn apparently didn't think it was worth dealing with this priest any more, and reached for the buzzer to call somebody.

"I've locked the door, Mr. Thorn," Brennan said.

"Yes?" the female voice answered Thorn's call.

"Would you send for a security guard, please?" he said calmly.

Brennan knew his time to speak was short, and his voice betrayed his desperation. "I beg you, Mr. Thorn, listen to what I have to say."

The buzzer went off, and the female voice answered Thorn in a slightly worried voice, "Ambassador Thorn?"

"I was at the hospital, Mr. Thorn, the night your son was born!" Brennan said.

That grabbed Adrian's attention. He listened now with rapt attention.

"Which of my sons are you referring to?" Thorn asked coolly.

"The younger boy. I witnessed the birth."

Adrian's heart fell at the knowledge that Brennan wasn't saying anything about his mother, but he perked up again when he remembered that finding out about Damien's mother was almost just as good. _Almost. _

The buzzer went off again. "Sir?"

"I beg you…" Brennan said again. The buzzer went off insistently.

"All right," Thorn muttered to the intercom. "Stand by." Then he addressed Brennan. "What do you want?"

"To save you, Mr. Thorn, so Christ will forgive me."

Adrian remembered what Shaeido had told him: that Brennan had once followed Satan, but had converted to faith in God. _He thinks that if he can save Thorn's life by helping to kill Damien, he will receive retribution for his sins? Well, I can't let him succeed, no matter how desperate he is._

"What do you know about my sons?" Thorn demanded. He looked both apprehensive of and interested in Brennan's words, and Adrian knew that he too wondered about the birth parents of his children.

"Everything."

"And what is that?" asked Thorn, with strained calmness in his voice.

"The younger one. I saw its mother."

Adrian's heart leapt at the words, but his lip curled in contempt when Brennan referred to Damien as 'it.'

"You saw my wife," Thorn said. Adrian didn't know what he was trying to do by attempting to keep their adoptions hidden, but he knew one thing: His lie wasn't fooling any of them.

"I saw its mother," Brennan repeated, more forcefully.

"You're referring to my wife." Thorn's voice had grown more aggressive as well.

"Its mother, Mr. Thorn!"

Thorn stood up angrily. "If this is blackmail, then come out and say it! What is it that you're trying to say?"

"Its mother was a jack – "

Brennan's shout was cut off by the security guard kicking down the door, after his repeated knocks had gone unanswered. "Everything all right, sir?" he inquired.

"You sounded strange," said his secretary, who had followed behind the guard. Adrian realized it was probably her voice on the intercom. "The door was locked."

"I want this gentleman escorted out of here," Thorn ordered, looking at Brennan.

The guard obeyed immediately. "Okay, let's go." He took Brennan by the upper arm and started to half-lead, half-pull him out of the room. Brennan did not resist, but turned back to Thorn once. "Accept Christ," he said simply. "Each day. Drink His blood." Then he allowed the guard to take him out of the office.

The secretary stayed behind a moment, looking worriedly at Thorn. He nodded for her to go, and she left, closing the door behind her. Thorn was left alone in the room with a somber, contemplative expression on his face, and then Adrian's vision swept away into a whirlwind of color.

In a few seconds, he found himself back in the gray misty world of his dream, and Shaeido stood before him. "So, what did we learn from that?" he said, and then went on before Adrian could open his mouth to answer. "That Christians are vampires." He guffawed at his own joke, which he had probably told a thousand times before, but Adrian wasn't satisfied.

Tactical information was useful to an extent, but now that the vision was done, Adrian was frustrated that he hadn't gotten the answers he had been looking for. "Don't joke with me, Shaeido," he said. Shaeido's grin faltered, but he didn't seem too affected.

"I did learn a lot from that," Adrian went on, staring at Shaeido and focusing his gaze on the dark pupils of his light green, honeydew eyes, "but not enough. I want to learn one more thing from you, too."

Shaeido's jaw set. He knew what was coming, and he prepared himself for a fight. Adrian was ready to give one.

"Tell me who our mothers were. Damien's. And mine."

**~0~**

**Aaagh. Was that a bad cliffhanger? I think it was. Bleh. Anyway, R&R, please!**

**Adrian: Hey, R&R means READ and review in fanfic-speak, doesn't it? Then why are you putting it at the end of a chapter, if they've already read it?**

**Kaen: …Shut up, Adrian.**

**Adrian: But it doesn't make sense to put it in an author's note at the END!**

**Kaen: Look, buddy, who's the Authoress here?**

**Adrian: Uh, you?**

**Kaen: So who's got the power?**

**Adrian: That would be…me.**

**Kaen: Let me rephrase that: I'm the Authoress and I'll put whatever the hell I want in my damn author's notes, which I will put wherever the hell I want! Capiche?**

**Adrian: Sì, ho capito, ho capito! Hai il potere. Il che significa che anche il potere di darmi un cucciolo. Mi piacciono i cuccioli. Damien mi ricorda un cucciolo. Oppure cuccioli mi ricordano Damien? Non mi interessa, voglio solo un cucciolo. Posso avere un cucciolo, Kaen?**

**Kaen: Wh-what? How are you speaking Italian?**

**Adrian: Because I'm cool like that. And because I was born in Italy. Ehi, la nota di questo autore sta diventando veramente lungo. È possibile scrivere le note dell'autore davvero lunga. Avete notato che, Kaen? Si può solo andare avanti e avanti e avanti e avanti e avanti e avanti e avanti e avanti e avanti e avanti e avanti –**

**Kaen: Okay, let's cut him off here before he gives me a migraine. Jikai made, dear readers! See, I can be multilingual too, Adrian…**


End file.
